The deepest inland lake in Michigan with a measured depth is Torch Lake in Antrim County, 250 ft at its deepest point on Michigan DNR survey maps. Next come Crystal Lake in Benzie County (175 ft), Lake Angeline in Marquette County (162 ft), Syphon Lake in Luce County (160 ft) and Lake Thumb in Charlevoix County (152 ft). 27 lakes reach 100 ft or more.
Size does not decide depth: Lake Angeline covers 75 acres and Syphon Lake covers 11 acres. Every figure in the rankings is measured; lakes the DNR has not surveyed are not ranked, however deep they may be. State estimates are kept apart, further down.
Cass Lake and Heart Lake tie at 123 ft; both are in the table below.
Source: Michigan DNR, lake deep points (measured depths from DNR lake surveys), fetched 26 Oct 2026. Acres: Michigan DNR hydrography.
The 25 deepest by measured depth. Of the 25, 17 have a lake page on this site with the depth map drawn from the same survey.
| Lake | Deepest | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Torch Lake Antrim County | 250 ft | 18,722 |
| Crystal Lake Benzie County | 175 ft | 9,869 |
| Lake Angeline Marquette County | 162 ft | 75 |
| Syphon Lake Luce County | 160 ft | 11 |
| Lake Thumb Charlevoix County | 152 ft | 511 |
| Elk Lake Grand Traverse County | 150 ft | 8,195 |
| Higgins Lake Roscommon County | 130 ft | 10,186 |
| Glen Lake Leelanau County | 130 ft | 4,871 |
| Loon Lake Iosco County | 128 ft | 416 |
| Cass Lake Oakland County | 123 ft | 1,279 |
| Heart Lake Otsego County | 123 ft | 67 |
| Lake Charlevoix Charlevoix County | 122 ft | 17,268 |
| Mullett Lake Cheboygan County | 120 ft | 16,704 |
| Lake Marina Cheboygan County | 120 ft | 23 |
| Maceday Lake Oakland County | 117 ft | 219 |
| Lotus Lake Oakland County | 117 ft | 180 |
| Otter Lake Genesee County | 117 ft | 67 |
| Orchard Lake Oakland County | 111 ft | 796 |
| Gull Lake Kalamazoo County | 110 ft | 2,046 |
| Chicagon Lake Iron County | 110 ft | 1,083 |
| Union Lake Oakland County | 110 ft | 467 |
| Long Lake, Crystal Falls Township Iron County | 105 ft | 60 |
| Green Lake Grand Traverse County | 102 ft | 1,995 |
| Big Bradford Lake Otsego County | 102 ft | 256 |
| Walloon Lake Charlevoix County | 100 ft | 4,567 |
Source: Michigan DNR, lake deep points (measured depths from DNR lake surveys), fetched 26 Oct 2026. Acres: Michigan DNR hydrography.
Among lakes of 1,000 acres or more, the deepest are Torch Lake (250 ft), Crystal Lake (175 ft), Elk Lake (150 ft) and Higgins Lake (130 ft). 68 of Michigan’s 98 lakes of that size have a measured depth.
Source: Michigan DNR, lake deep points (measured depths from DNR lake surveys), fetched 26 Oct 2026. Acres: Michigan DNR hydrography.
The deepest measured lake in each county, deepest first. 76 of Michigan’s 83 counties have at least one lake with a measured depth; Arenac County, Bay County, Huron County, Monroe County, Sanilac County, Shiawassee County and St. Clair County have none.
| County | Deepest measured lake | Depth |
|---|---|---|
| Antrim | Torch Lake | 250 ft |
| Benzie | Crystal Lake | 175 ft |
| Marquette | Lake Angeline | 162 ft |
| Luce | Syphon Lake | 160 ft |
| Charlevoix | Lake Thumb | 152 ft |
| Grand Traverse | Elk Lake | 150 ft |
| Roscommon | Higgins Lake | 130 ft |
| Leelanau | Glen Lake | 130 ft |
| Iosco | Loon Lake | 128 ft |
| Oakland | Cass Lake | 123 ft |
| Otsego | Heart Lake | 123 ft |
| Cheboygan | Mullett Lake | 120 ft |
Source: Michigan DNR, lake deep points (measured depths from DNR lake surveys), fetched 26 Oct 2026. Acres: Michigan DNR hydrography.
Measured depth is the exception. Of Michigan’s 6,463 lakes of 10 acres or more, 1,914 have a DNR deep point (30%); of the 1,128 lakes of 100 acres or more, 674 (60%).
Michigan EGLE publishes a depth estimate for many lakes in its water-clarity dataset. Its depths are labelled feet but hold metres, and they are rounded older estimates. On the 1,544 lakes that have both, the estimate is within 20% of the measured depth on 877 and off by half or more on 348. That is why no estimate enters the ranking. The deepest estimates for lakes with no measured depth, rounded to 5 ft:
| Lake | Depth | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Torch Lake Houghton County | about 125 ft (est.) | 2,400 |
| Hardy Dam Pond Newaygo County | about 110 ft (est.) | 2,773 |
| Avery Lake Montmorency County | about 90 ft (est.) | 290 |
| Little Paw Paw Lake Berrien County | about 90 ft (est.) | 101 |
| Portage Lake Washtenaw County | about 85 ft (est.) | 641 |
| Unnamed lake (46.379° N, 87.959° W) Marquette County | about 80 ft (est.) | 623 |
| Lake Ottawa Iron County | about 80 ft (est.) | 532 |
| Miner Lake Allegan County | about 80 ft (est.) | 328 |
| Imp Lake Gogebic County | about 80 ft (est.) | 91 |
| Lake Ponemah Genesee County | about 75 ft (est.) | 410 |
Measured: Michigan DNR lake deep points, fetched 26 Oct 2026. Estimates: Michigan EGLE, Michigan Inland Lakes Water Clarity, depth field converted from metres and rounded to 5 ft, as on our county pages; “est.” marks an estimate, not a measurement.
A deep point is the depth of a lake’s deepest contour on its DNR survey map; the DNR places the point at the centre of that contour. The surveys were made by the Institute for Fisheries Research of the DNR Fisheries Division from the 1930s on, and the contours were digitized from scanned survey maps, so a figure can be decades old. The layer’s description says deep points had been found for 2,176 lakes as of 16 February 2012; the layer we fetched holds 2,651 points for 2,173 lake numbers, 8 of them with no depth. A lake with two equally deep basins has two points; we take the deepest.
Other lists differ. The Michigan Lakes and Streams Association gives Torch Lake a maximum depth of 285 ft; the DNR deep point records 250 ft. We print the DNR figure because it is the measured survey value we can cite.
Each deep point is matched to its lake by the DNR lake number. Where the number matches no lake outline, we place the point by location, and only when it lies inside a lake of the same name: Glen Lake (Leelanau County) is placed that way.
Survey maps are historic and not for navigation. How we read depth is on How we measure.
Michigan DNR, lake deep points layer and its description, fetched 26 Oct 2026 (data last edited 24 Apr 2025). Michigan Lakes and Streams Association (mymlsa.org), read 26 Oct 2026.